Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Kim is reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower and would maybe restrict her recommendation to seniors. Maybe a certain level of maturity is necessary to deal with it. She's not entirely sure about its weirdness and she's on the epilogue.

Cherub is reading The Last Song and is finding it alright. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different character (like Perfect Chemistry)

Friday, 27 March 2015

This novel is about an Argentine family, in the middle of which is 18 year old Jude, who has three older sisters. She is looking after her father, who has alzheimers and is slowly losing each of his memories. When he was younger, her father had traveled around South America on his motorbike, Valentina, and he wants to restore it so he can ride again. Jude goes along with his plan, but the mechanic they hired turns out to be Emilio Vargas. As kind, funny and cute as he is, he’s off limits - seriously. Two of Jude’s older sisters had their hearts broken by Vargas brothers, one even breaking off an engagement. They swore an oath with a younger Jude that she would never get involved with a Vargas. Which is exactly what she ends up doing, hard as she may fight it. Emilio has not had the best past, and is set on leaving the minute he finishes the motorbike, but when he offers Jude the chance to go with him, she hesitates. Jude’s dad gets his last ride on Valentina, but has an accident. While in hospital, he persuades Jude to go with Emilio because he knows that’s what she really wants.

Jude is extremely funny as the narrator of this story, and there are happy parts ad sad parts and 'awwwwwwww' parts. It is quite inspiring and grab-life-by-the-horns.

Ms Metcalfe is again recommending Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue by Kristin Cahore.

On reading:

"I can't go to sleep without reading."

"If I ever have a bad dream or something I read."

"Reading is how I get out of everything like chores."

There was a wide ranging discussion on how teenagers treat each other and social expectations inspired by the books.

We're also excited about our upcoming trip to the Writer's Festival!!!

Update:

Some suggestions from Isaac Thomas(teacher at McAuley who is generally misanthropic and hates romance novels)

"I don't hate John Green, and his all have romance. I think the only other romance book I haven't hated this year has been The DUFF. The will-they-won't-they pair.... it's all handled tastefully, so I've lent it to a Year 9. Also Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn, which is based around a girl trying to give up her phone and social media, but sneakily turns into a romance in the final act. Or Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, by Cohn and David Levithan, which is sort of an anti-romance, but I recall someone lives happily ever after somewhere along the lines. "

Monday, 23 March 2015

"The deep reader, protected from distractions and attuned to the nuances of language, enters a state that psychologist Victor Nell, in a study of the psychology of pleasure reading, likens to a hypnotic trance. Nell found that when readers are enjoying the experience the most, the pace of their reading actually slows. The combination of fast, fluent decoding of words and slow, unhurried progress on the page gives deep readers time to enrich their reading with reflection, analysis, and their own memories and opinions. It gives them time to establish an intimate relationship with the author, the two of them engaged in an extended and ardent conversation like people falling in love."

Sunday, 22 March 2015

One of the good things about being in a book club is that other people can give you suggestions of what to read. Thanks Kim! This is what I did on Sunday morning- cafe and book after excercise class.

I'm only just into the book, and it such an easy, comfortable read. I'm familiar with the film of the same name by Studio Ghibli and I'm reliably informed that the book is both better than and different to the film.

I look forward to finishing it off ahead of bookclub on Wednesday. What is your favourite book and who would you recommend it to?

Isaac is reading a book called Sister by Rosamund Lupton (recommended by Suzie). It's about a girl whose sister is missing. He thinks it may be similar to Chinese Cinderella (which is really sad).

We had a discussion around what the library could be like. A reading room, a senior space, a second level, more books. Always good to some blue-sky thinking.

Kim is reading The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau. A mix between Hunger Games, Divergent and Legend. It's a dystopian future book. She just found out it's a series, and is not sure if she can cope with any more.

So many people talk about Twilight and miss this super great book. Rose is the bodyguard to lissa, a vampire princess who must attend school and stay away from the dark side. To make her stronger and better the elders bring in a super hot guy named Dimitri who will train her so she can be stronger and better. Rose is my favorite character because she doesn't run away and hide she fights to save lissa life :)s. I strongly recommend teens to read this its such a good book the movie is not so cool because its different, but once you pick this book up you can't put it back down like legit you want to read it over and over again but people might have different opinions but I'm telling you this book is a really good book and you engage with it. -Khylie Macfarlane

Friday, 13 March 2015

My favourite author just died, and I'm genuinely sad about it. It was not unexpected as he had a degenerative illness, but the fact that there will be no more Discworld books is something I find difficult to grasp. I have read all of his books many times, and they are the books I read when I feel sad, am bored, need to relax.

Fangirl teenage me once met him at a book signing in 1998 at Whitcoulls on Queen St. He declined to inscribe my favourite book of his- Small Gods- with my requested phrase-"In memory of that night in Paris", instead writing "In memory of a wonderful 10 seconds."

I feel that the world is a better place because of him, and I feel that I am a better person than I might be because of his books.

Monday, 9 March 2015

This mean machine is cruising around Argentina giving our books. Designed by Raul Lemisoff, who says "the tank can generate much social good as “a structure that has the ability of transporting books, giving books away, collecting books, making a mess of people’s heads.”Read about it here.